Antti Raanta was all smiles when he was informed that he would be making his season debut against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers. Corey Crawford missed the morning skate with an upper body injury. The Finnish netminder finished with 32 saves for his second career shutout as the Blackhawks pounded the Flyers 4-0.

Patrick Kane had 2 power play goals and Brandon Saad was the spark the third line needed getting his first goal of the year along with an assist. This ended the Hawks 4-game home stand (3-0-1-0) which spanned over eleven days. Read more »

From one Eastern Conference team to the next, the Blackhawks jetted to Philadelphia on Tuesday looking to stack points in effort to regain a home ice advantage for the opening round of the playoffs. A welcomed spark was added on Sunday with the return of Marian Hossa.

Big Hoss propelled the Hawks to victory with a three-point performance over their old rivals, the Detroit Red Wings Sunday. It definitely makes a difference when he is in the lineup. Although it was an injury depleted Red Wings team, the 2 points is exactly what the Hawks needed. Now it’s a visit to Philly to take on the Flyers. Last time the Hawks played the Flyers, Ray Emery was run out of the net as the Hawks coasted to a 7-2 victory. Read more »

The Chicago Blackhawks were held out of the net for over 20 minutes Wednesday night. At that point, the Hawks offense shook off a sloppy first period, scorched the Philadelphia Flyers for five second-period goals and cruised to a 7-2 victory.

Seven different Blackhawks found the back of the Flyers net as Chicago won their third straight behind rookie goalie Antti Raanta. Last year’s back-up goalie, Ray Emery, had his homecoming ruined as the Hawks burned him for a six-pack of goals.

First Period-The tone was set early as Wayne Simmonds laid a hit on Duncan Keith in the left corner of the Blackhawks zone. In came Wade Brookbank to engage Simmonds barely ninety seconds into the contest. Read more »

It’s a show. I don’t really know what to say about this one other than the Superstar and I got back together for e.95 of TheThirdManIn~Radio. Usually when he and I do these things you never know what we’ll talk about and the reason is – neither do we.

We talked about some things, I don’t recall too much exactly. We had a show outline but it was aborted during the music intro. I enjoyed myself though. We discussed the Blackhawks getting better today, how awful traditionally they’ve been in Philly (Stanley Cup aside), a few New Years resolutions, Andrew Shaw and some other stuff I can’t recall at the moment.

I’d say its completely missable unless you’re desperate for time killer or background noise at work. Its probably best for that.

There were some very long, tough deliberations going into a few of this year’s opening round matchups. Its difficult to isolate a ‘Cinderella’ this year because every one of those teams have gaping holes; major issues.

If the Nashville Predators were facing almost any other team but the Ducks in the first round, I’d pick the Preds to finally solve the first-round victory equation. The Preds must jump all over Anaheim at Honda Center in games one and two to have a chance. Pekka Rinne is due for a coming out series and the Ducks will have to get by with Dan Ellis at least for the initial game or two. It will be a long series though and the Ducks have too much firepower to bet against. I’m already planning on regretting this, but…. Ducks in 7.

(1) Vancouver over (8) Chicago – 6 games

(2) San Jose over (7) Los Angeles – 5 games

(3) Detroit over (6) Phoenix – 7 games

(4) Anaheim over (5) Nashville – 7 games

The Canucks are deeper up front and their blue line will outperform the Blackhawks defensive six. Corey Crawford had to start the Blackhawks’ final 27 consecutive games out of necessity and showed signs of wear in the last week. If the Hawks do get under Roberto Luongo’s hair, the key to the series then becomes Alain Vigneault’s trigger finger. In Corey Schneider, Vigneault has possibly an equally as good goaltender to Luongo in the back up position. But if Vigneault waits too long to flip the card, the series’ tide could turn and it could be too late. The Hawks are 18-10-1-3 versus Western playoff teams and five of those losses overall came to Vancouver and San Jose. If they can somehow work their Van-magic again and pull past the Nucks, the Hawks could go on another run. But the Canucks are too deep; special teams are too good and they’re primed to take this series. In both previous Blackhawks’ postseasons, home ice in the first round was a pivotal factor and they don’t have it here. Canucks in 6.

Phoenix gave the Red Wings all they could handle last season and now have another chance to pull off the upset. The difference this year being Detroit has the home ice advantage. Detroit struggled down the stretch and will start the series without Henrik Zetterberg (knee). Jimmy Howard has been just ‘okay’ and he stares down the other end of the rink at Ilya Bryzgalov, who is capable of winning three or four games on his own. Phoenix relies on him and a balanced scoring attack. The Red Wings need Johan Franzen to get going again and guys like Lidstrom, Stuart, Rafalski and Kronwall must be better than they were in March and April. Home ice will be a major factor. Dave Tippett and Mike Babcock are two of the best coaches around. Experience edge goes to eventual series winner… Red Wings in 7.

San Jose were the league’s best team during the second-half of the season. Antti Niemi regained his 2010 playoff form and finds himself now behind another deep and top-end talent rich 2-seed. Los Angeles will be without top center Anze Kopitar. While Kopitar didn’t do much in the Kings’ opening-round loss to Vancouver last year, his absence is a stinger. The season-series between these two teams did split 3-3, but the Sharks needed a shootout to win two of those games. Jonathan Quick and Antti Niemi will wage an epic battle, so the games will be tight. Which is where Kopitar’s loss looms bigger at a position the team isn’t strong at. San Jose has two lines that can score every night and a third that will pitch in too. The Kings secondary scoring line is now its first and thus draws the top checking assignment. If LA is to win this series, they’ll have to do so with a string of 2-1, 1-0 type victories. They can pull it off once or twice, but the Sharks are too explosive to shut down four over seven…. Sharks in 5.